It’s Hard to Say

Mary Jo Salter is one of the most gifted American poets of her generation. Gathering together the best of her work from the 1985 collection Henry Purcell in Japan up to the 2013 collection Nothing by Design, It’s Hard to Say amply attests to the skill, range and depth of this deft, witty, touching and ambitious poet, each of whose books has excited the very highest praise. Salter deserves to be far better-known in the UK than she is, and Waywiser is delighted to be making her Selected Poems readily available for the first time to a British audience.

Poet, editor, essayist, playwright, and lyricist Mary Jo Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A former editor at the Atlantic Monthly and co-editor of the fourth and fifth editions of the Norton Anthology of Poetry Salter’s thorough understanding of poetic tradition is clearly evident in her work. Salter is the author of many books of poetry, including A Kiss in Space (1999), Open Shutters (2003), A Phone Call to the Future (2008), and Nothing by Design (2013). Her second book, Unfinished Painting (1989) was a Lamont Selection for the most distinguished second volume of poetry published that year and Sunday Skaters (1994) was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award.